Meanwhile, the Challenge goes on for the little red Scamp, which remains grounded on mud near Curlew Key as of last night, when one of the crew returned to retrieve her. He crawled half a mile through FL Bay muck to get aboard.

Are we having fun yet? What defective part of my brain actually wants to do this, and is there a cure?

Talked to Paul Myers this weekend at our biannual sail and camp on Caya Costa. He entered the EC in his new AI. As can be seen in the above videos, it was rough going with lots of peddling. Paul made it half way, before pulling a little short of the second check point. His GPS quit, his vhf quit and his cell phone quit. He was navigating with compass and paper charts (the old fashion way). He was experiencing some nasty salt water rash were the sun don't shine and extreme fatigue. One report suggested that he had some rudder issues, but he indicated the boat held up fine.

He was experiencing some nasty salt water rash were the sun don't shine

Interesting point. This is a problem for people on life rafts, and if you do the EC in and AI, you are pretty much signing up to be wet for days on end. It is asking for trouble. A drysuit presents a different set of problems, but would solve that one.